Mayor Rob Ford’s gravy train-derailing 2010 campaign broke the Municipal Elections Act, according to an audit of his books.

The long-awaited compliance audit on Ford’s campaign by Froese Forensic Partners was released late Friday and concludes Ford breached the Municipal Elections Act and exceeded the authorized spending limit by $40,168 or 3%. Mayoral candidates had a $1.3 million spending limit during the 2010 race.

Auditors concluded most of the over the limit spending was due to “unrecorded expenses and the reallocation of costs for certain events treated previously as fundraising costs.”

The report also found “apparent contraventions in relation to contributions, campaign expenses and financial reporting” including $4,387 in interest relief for a loan from Doug Ford Holdings and Deco — the Ford family firm, corporate donations that shouldn’t have been accepted, an RV rented at less than fair market value and $5,805 in expenses incurred before Ford filed his nomination papers.

It will be up to the three-member compliance audit committee to determine on Feb. 25 whether the violations are serious enough to push ahead with a legal process that could lead to anything from a fine to Ford’s ouster from office.

Councillor Doug Ford, who was his brother’s campaign manager, was defending his brother before and after the audit came out Friday.

“What I’m saying is when we exceeded the limit by 3% (it) is because of the interpretation,” Ford said.

Ford also slammed Fair Elections Toronto — the group that pursued the audit of the mayor.

“You’ve got a group that is spending how many thousands to go after someone that was democratically elected. They can’t beat him at the polls,” Ford said. “They’re trying everything they can to take down Rob Ford. They want to politically kill him. That’s how much they despise Rob Ford.

“They want to kill Rob Ford. They want to kill him for the next two years.”

In a statement from their lawyer, the duo called for Ford to be taken to court over the audit.

“Based on the extraordinary number and severity of the apparent contraventions of election law by Rob Ford, the applicants will be requesting the compliance audit committee proceed with prosecution in a timely manner,” read the statement from lawyer Heidi Rubin — who is representing the two pro bono.

“The audit revealed more than 100 apparent contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act, including the finding that Ford spent more than $40,000 above his legal spending limit. Additionally, the auditors found that Ford, in apparent contravention of election laws, accepted corporate donations, received a loan from Ford’s family company (Doug Ford Holding Inc.), and began spending money before the campaign was legally permitted.”

The release of the audit comes exactly a week after Ford won a separate legal battle threatening to toss him out of office.

The mayor successfully appealed the judicial decision ordering him out of office for violating the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act.

Lawyer Clayton Ruby, who took Ford to court over the conflict on behalf of resident Paul Magder, has vowed to try to appeal that court decision to the Supreme Court.

Mayor Ford spent most of Friday running away from reporters ahead of the audit’s release.

“I haven’t seen (the audit), I don’t know, I can’t comment on it,” Ford said as he rushed away from a Toronto Fire graduation ceremony for new recruits. “I haven’t seen any report yet so I can’t comment on it but I fully cooperated with them.”

Asked if he was confident his campaign did everything correctly, Ford said, “Absolutely.”